On Friday 27 February, Big Think partner PwC hosted its second global webcast focused on the question, ‘What would you do if you were not afraid?’ The webcast was part of ‘Aspire to Lead: The PwC Women’s...

Clone Doctor’s Fibs

A scientist from South Korea who created the world’s first cloned dog (named Snuppy) was convicted yesterday of embezzlement and harvesting human eggs from female subordinates, according to The Times. A two year suspended sentence was awarded to Hwang Woo Suk, who was formerly disgraced for falsifying dramatic discoveries in stem-cell research, but he was acquitted of fraudulently raising funds from private organisations. Having been honoured with the title “supreme scientist” by the South Korean government, Hwang’s lies caused international scandal after much of his research into human embryo cloning and stem cells was proved to have been faked. “The judges found yesterday that Hwang had misappropriated 830 million won of research funds but ruled that it had not been for his personal enrichment. He was acquitted of fraudulently obtaining private donations worth two billion won,” The Times writes.